Matilda: Paul Gallico

When a Broadway agent sells a boxing kangaroo to a showman - who really called up for a knife-thrower - things really start happening. The male kangaroo, called Matilda, accidentally tangles with a middleweight boxing king and the affray is reported with mock seriousness by journalist Duke Parkhurst. He claims that Matilda is now technically the World Champion and Bimmie the agent, Billy Baker the Bermondsey Kid who owns Matilda, Duke and a variety of rascals, scoundrels and reprobates all get involved. Even the Mafia want to get in on the act. Gallico, with his talent for the whimsical, has written an ingenious and hilarious story, a champion in itself.